* Interviewed by Sabah, Ceyda Erem, President of CNR Holding, said Chinese officials asked them to organize shows in China in various sectors including home textiles, furniture, marble, construction materials, elevators, electronics and paints.
CNR Holding President Ceyda Erem said in an exclusive interview with Sabah daily that Turkey needs to invest in organizing trade fairs in order to balance the trade deficit with China. Erem, who participated in the business people group that accompanied Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his China visit, stressed that the trade deficit with China was $1.24 billion in 2000 but it climbed up to $22 billion to the favor of China this year.
When asked about the China visit, Erem said they had been welcomed with a greater regard than ever, and meetings with their Chinese counterparts, especially the CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade) sector unions, were finalized with numerous agreements. “The First steps have been taken to organize fairs in five different sectors,” she said, detailing that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s presence alongside Erdoğan had great impact on the attention they received from Chinese business organizations.
“They want us to take the Boat Show over there,” Erem said, then listed home textiles, furniture, marble, construction materials, elevators, electronics and paints as the sectors in which the Chinese want Turkey to organize fairs. Erem added that they are planning to take the Boat Show there along with home textiles, marble, rubber and plastics sector fairs. On investing in China, Erem said at an international fair organizers meeting in Switzerland 12 years ago, it was said that in 20 years’ time, they would all be working for China and the European fairs would come to an end. “English and German fair organizing firms have foreseen the decreasing returns in European markets and established their position in China without waiting for 20 years,” Erem said, and highlighted that they had been taking advantage of Turkey’s economic consistency over the last 12 years. Stressing that Chinese business owners do not know English, Erem said they are investing in human resources that will enhance trade with China, and the number of employees who are proficient in Chinese is increasing day-by-day.
When asked about her opinion on the fairground expansion decision of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Erem underlined that the size of the fairs in terms of area is not as important as it is thought to be in Turkey, indicating that the true parameter of success in fairs is the volume of business and the added-value provided to the economy. Erem claimed that the amount of participants and the number of interested visitors should increase in order for fairs to grow, pointing to the Premiere Vision Fair, which was conducted with French partners, as a notable example. She said they have sold 5,500 square meters at fairly high prices and attracted 8,000 suitable visitors. “But the French objected when they planned to double the area of the fair next year,” Erem said, the reason being purposeful expansion, as the French estimated that they could only manage to increase the amount of suitable visitors that would correspond to 1,000 square meters of additional space. Erem then explained that attracting appropriate visitors who are potential customers to the participant firms is more important than expanding the fairgrounds of Istanbul. She added that bringing Chinese visitors to a fair in Turkey is easy, while attracting Chinese buyers is more difficult to do. “That’s why we believe that it is more efficient to invest in organizing fairs in China rather than bringing Chinese buyers over here,” Erem said.
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